International law, especially in Great Britain and the United States, is a matter of judicial recognition, sanction, and even interpretation. Mr. Justice Gray of the United States Supreme Court, in the case of the Paquete Habana, said: "International law is a part of our law and must be ascertained and admitted by the courts of justice of appropriate jurisdiction as often as questions of right depending upon it are duly presented for their determination." 1

In the convention of the second Hague conference for the establishment of an international prize-court, which convention has been ratified by the United States, it is provided that in the absence of treaty provisions this court shall apply the rules of international law. If no generally recognized rule exists, the court shall give judgment in accordance with the general principles of justice and equity.

9. International Law as Part of Municipal Law.-All civilized states that are or claim to be members of the family of nations recognize international law in one way or another as part of the law of the land. Before, however, it can become a part of municipal law the two laws or systems must have equally exalted standards. In the first place, it is expected that we find in the country concerned the necessary degree of civilization. It has been well said that it is impossible for states to take part in modern international society when they are unable to realize the ideas on which such society is based and that the area within which international law operates properly coincides with the area of civilization.

"As soon as a nation," says Woolsey, "has assumed the obligations of international law, they become a portion of the law of the land to govern the decisions of courts, the conduct of the rulers and that of the people. A nation is bound to protect this part of law by statute and penalty as much as that part which controls the jural relations or in other ways affects the actions of individuals." 2

1 Paquete Habana, "Scott's Cases," 19.

2 Woolsey, "Int. Law," p. 27.

As to England, Blackstone says: "International law is adopted in its full extent by the laws of England; and whenever any question arises which is properly subject to its jurisdiction it is held to be a part of the law of the land." This view was held continuously by the high judicial authorities of Great Britain until the exceptional opinion of Chief Justice Cockburn, delivered in the case of the ship Franconia, which opinion was supported by seven out of the thirteen judges. sitting in the case. They declined to enforce the rule of Blackstone just recited and held that enacted municipal law was required to enforce the international law of the case which was as to criminal jurisdiction over a foreign vessel within the marginal waters of the English shore. This decision caused much unfavorable opinion and was practically nullified by the passage of an act of Parliament.

It has been supplanted also as an authority by a recent decision of Lord Chief Justice Alverstone in 1905 in which he said: "It is quite true that whatever has received the common consent of civilized nations must have received the assent of our country and that to which we have assented along with other nations in general may properly be called international law and as such will be acknowledged and applied by our municipal tribunals when legitimate occasion arises for those tribunals to decide questions to which doctrines of international law may be relevant." 1

As to the United States, we may quote Chief Justice Marshall in the case of the Nereide, in which he declared international law to be "a part of the law of the land." Besides similar opinions, both from the Supreme Court of the United States in the cases of the Scotia and the Paquete Habana and of learned jurists, the Constitution of the United States in Section 8, Article I, invests in Congress the power" to define and punish offences against the laws of nations," and in Section 2, Article III,

'Case of West Rand Central Gold Mining Co. v. the King (L. R. 1905, 2 K. B. 391).

it is provided that "in all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls . . . the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction."

Codification of International Law.-The various codes and collections of sea laws existing before the time of Grotius represent the first attempts of codification of a part of what has since become international law. International sea trade created laws and usages of this nature long before their necessity was recognized on shore. The high seas became common, as time advanced, to all countries which possessed shipping, and hence these codes as evolved became factors in the development of sea trade and intercourse and also as usages and customs that have been incorporated largely in our present maritime international and municipal law.

By far the most important and best preserved of these codes is "The Consolato del Mare," compiled in Barcelona, Spain, in the middle or latter part of the fourteenth century, in the dialect of the Roman tongue which was then and is to an extent still the language of the province of Catalonia, in which Barcelona is situated. This compilation is considered by the best writers upon the subject not as a legislative code but as a record of the customs and usages received as law by the various commercial communities of the Mediterranean. It was considered of great authoritative value upon certain subjects and is still of value as the exponent of many laws and traditions. It embraces rules governing not only civil contracts relating to trade and navigation in peace but expounded principles then recognized as bearing upon belligerent and neutral rights in time of war.

Earlier and other sea codes were the "Rhodian laws," dating back in part to the eighth century; "The Tabula Amalfitana," claimed to have originated in Amalfi, Italy, in the tenth century; the laws of Oléron, France, of the twelfth century; and the Leges Wisbuensis of Wisby, Gothland, for the northern seas, dated in the fourteenth century.

Modern movement toward the codification of international law is progressing by various general compilations, efforts of learned writers, and also by means of partial codifications, the results of individual efforts and those of various international conferences of recent times. Among the individual codifications are those of Lieber, Field, Levi, Fiore, Bluntschli, and others, while as a result of international conferences there are the declaration of Paris, 1856, the rules of the Geneva conventions, 1864-9, the declaration of St. Petersburg, 1868, the declaration of London, 1909, and the codes and conventions of the Brussels and Hague conferences.

It is true that most of these are fragmentary and partial and vary as to definiteness in statement, but it is wise that the progress should be in that manner awaiting the formation of a code of universal authority. The law uncodified by authority, like the common law of England, still remains in force.

II. Observance of International Law.-We will now deal with the matter of the observance of international law by the civilized countries of the world. In the first place, we may state that international law cannot be restricted to any political or geographical group of civilized countries. It is no longer even confined to Christian states, for the moment a nation attains and exhibits sufficient civilization, self-restraint, and independence it naturally enters into the body of states to whom, as a whole, international law applies.

The government of every country, civilized or not, is compelled to be alive to the existence of other states and to the questions arising from intercourse with them. "Even," as Lawrence says, "where a state adopts a self-sufficient theory of national life, and endeavors, as China did till quite recent times, to keep its people from all intercourse with foreigners, it does not escape from the necessity of dealing with them. It cannot act as if it were alone in the world, for the simple reason that it is not alone. The whole machinery of nonintercourse is created with a view to other states and absorbs

in its working no small care and attention of the government. If, then, external affairs have from the necessity of the case to be dealt with by states which have adopted a policy of the most rigorous isolation, it is clear that the vast majority of peoples who desire a greater or less amount of intercourse with their neighbors impose thereby upon their rulers the task of dealing to a very large extent with foreign nations."

From this necessity alone a body of governing rules would arise and from this necessity would also follow their observance. The fact of occasional violations would be the rule of similar violations of civil and other laws.

Although international law does not proceed from any superior lawmaking power and there is no sovereign authority whose function it is to enforce its provisions, it is accepted by all civilized states and is not abrogated or suspended by them in time of peace or in time of war. A recognition of its obligations is, as we have previously stated, incorporated in the municipal laws of most states, and punishments for offences against its requirements is in our country vested in Congress.

As an interesting provision for its enforcement I will quote Article 66 of the declaration of London, which reads as follows: The signatory powers undertake to insure the mutual observance of the rules contained in the present declaration in any war in which the belligerents are parties thereto. They will therefore issue the necessary instructions to their authorities and to their armed forces, and will take such measures as may be required in order to insure that it will be applied by their courts and more particularly their prize-courts."

Various schemes and projects have been suggested for many centuries of a federation of the leading military and naval powers, and also of syndicates of states charged with enforcements of international law and of measures for prevention of wars, with provisions for the organization of international police or armed forces. This remedy would threaten the inde1 Lawrence's "Principles," 3d ed., pp. 3, 4.